USA > Michigan > Wayne County > Detroit > The city of Detroit, Michigan, 1701-1922, Vol. I > Part 5
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After the French and Indian war they were slow to transfer their allegiance to the English. During the Revolutionary war they took no important part, but in the War of 1812 they fought against the United States with the tribes that gathered about Detroit. At that time the tribe lived on the Rock River, in Illinois, a few miles above the Sac Village. A few years after the Black Hawk war they were removed to a reservation in Iowa.
MINOR TRIBES
In addition to the tribes above mentioned there were several which were less intimately connected with the history of Detroit. One of these was the Menominee tribe, which Jean Nicollet found living with the Winnebago on the Green Bay in 1634. The French called these Indians Folles Avoines, from "wild rice," which was one of their chief articles of food. They were friendly to the French and assisted Du Buisson, the commandant at Detroit, to repel the attack of the Fox and Kickapoo Indians on the fort in May, 1712. In August, 1831, about twenty of them were killed by a Sac and Fox band near the present City of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, the assassins joining Black Hawk im- mediately afterward and taking part in the Black Hawk war the following year.
The Illinois-or Illini, as they were at first known-was, according to their traditions, onee a powerful nation, consisting of five subordinate tribes, viz. : The Kaskaskia, Peoria, Tamaroa, Cahokia and Michigani. They also assisted the French to defeat the assaults on Fort Pontchartrain in the spring of 1712. Pontiac, who led the uprising against the English posts in 1763, was killed by a Kaskaskia Indian in 1769, whereupon the Sae and Fox, allies of Pontiac, declared war upon the Illini and in time almost exterminated the tribes com- posing the confederacy.
The main dwelling place of the Kickapoo Indians was along the lower Wabash River, in southern Indiana and Illinois, though they frequently wandered into the Great Lakes country. Part of the tribe participated in the attack on the French fort at Detroit in May, 1712. As Capt. George Croghan and his eseort were on the way to the English posts on the Mississippi River early in the year 1765, he was captured near the month of the Wabash by a Kickapoo band that had been active in supporting Pontiae, but was soon afterward released.
All these tribes were of Algonquian stock, as were the Osage and a few others that figured to a slight extent in Detroit history. They are here classed
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as "minor tribes" merely because of the insignificant part they played in local events. Logan, the Cayuga (or Mingo) chief was an occasional visitor at Detroit. Tecumseh (the Shooting Star) and his brother Tenskwatawa (the Prophet), two of the greatest members of the Shawnee nation, frequently visited the post while the English were in control, and the former was an active sup- porter of the British in the War of 1812 until killed at the battle of the Thames.
CHAPTER III THE FIRST WHITE MEN
COUREURS DE BOIS-SAMUEL CIIAMPLAIN-THE JESUIT MISSIONARIES-MARQUETTE AND JOLIET-PERROT'S COUNCIL-DE LUSSON'S PROCLAMATION-DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER-LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS-THE GRIFFON-HENNEPIN'S DESCRIPTION OF THE DETROIT RIVER-HE ASCENDS THE MISSISSIPPI-DOLLIER AND GALINEE-THE BROKEN IDOL-AN INDIAN LEGEND- GALINEE'S MAP AND NARRATIVE.
In giving an account of the early explorers, who may or may not have visited the site of the City of Detroit, the writer has ventured to "wander far afield" and include explorations that may appear to have no direct bearing upon the city's history. Yet the work of each of the explorers mentioned in this chapter had its influence in developing the country about the Great Lakes, and incidentally contributed to the founding of Detroit.
COUREURS DE BOIS
In all probability the first white men to set foot upon the soil of Michigan were the coureurs de bois, or Canadian woodsmen. When the continent of North America was first explored by Europeans, it was found that the country lying above 36° north latitude was the richest and most extensive field in the world for the collection of fine furs. The Indians used the skins of some of the fur-bearing animals for clothing, or in the construction of their wigwams, not knowing that such skins were of almost fabulous value in the European capitals. The coming of the white man brought to the savage wants hitherto unknown-wants which he conld more easily satisfy by exchanging furs for the white man's goods than in any other way.
The French were the pioneers in the fur trade. Before the dawn of the seventeenth century they were trading with the Indians in the valley of the St. Lawrence River, and after Montreal was founded that city became the principal market for their peltries. The fur trade gave rise to that hardy, adventurons class of men known as coureurs de bois, who, afraid of nothing, wandered into the trackless forests in quest of furs. From the St. Lawrence country they worked their way westward, establishing friendly relations with the Indian tribes they met around the Great Lakes, then crossed the low portages to the Mississippi Valley, and from there by way of the Missouri River finally reached the Rocky Mountains.
The coureur de bois kept no journal of his travels. He had no time for such things, his energies all being directed to the acquisition of valuable peltries and opening up a trade with new tribes. They had no difficulty, as a rule, in maintaining good terms with the natives and many of them married Indian wives. It is quite probable that, in their migrations, their cances passed through "the
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strait." as the Detroit River was at first known, and it is possible that some of them may have landed on the site of the City of Detroit.
SAMUEL CHAMPLAIN
One of the earliest known explorers in the region about the Great Lakes, of whose work an authentic record has been preserved, was Samuel Champlain, who was born at St. Malo, France, in 1582. He was educated for the priesthood, but his love of adventure ontweighed his love for the "blaek gown" and he joined the French navy, where he developed into an expert navigator. About the time he attained to his majority he became interested in the explorations then going on in America. In 1607, when only twenty-five years of age, he was commissioned by the French King to fit out an expedition and establish a settle- ment somewhere in the country discovered by Jacques Cartier. On July 3, 1608, he selected the site of Quebec and there founded the third permanent settlement in North America. Three years later he laid the foundations of Montreal and in the same year discovered the lake that bears his name in North- eastern New York.
Some writers elaim that Champlain visited the vicinity of Detroit in 1610. In the French Colonial Records it is stated that he passed through the strait in 1611 or 1612. Marquis de Denonville, who was governor of New France from 1685 to 1689, writing some years later of Champlain's explorations, says : "In the years 1611 and 1612 he aseended the Grand River as far as Lake IIuron, called the fresh sea. He passed by places he has himself described in his book, which are no other than Detroit and Lake Erie."
Even in the face of this positive statement, it is by no means certain that Champlain ever visited the site of Detroit. In his own narrative of his travels and explorations, he says that some Indians described the strait to him in 1603, but nowhere in his writings does he assert that he passed through the Detroit River, or any stream answering its deseription.
From 1612 to 1619 and again from 1633 to 1635 he was governor of New France. During the former period he was engaged in exploring Canada and Prinee de Conde discharged the duties of governor. His description of the country was influential in building up the French settlements and, whether he visited Detroit or not, his work facilitated the establishment of French posts in the Northwest.
THE JESUITS
The Seventeenth Century was still in its infancy when Jesuit missionaries from the French settlements at Quebec and Montreal were among the Indian tribes living upon the shores of Lake Michigan and Lake Superior, instructing them in the ways of civilization and endeavoring to convert them to the Catholic faith. These early priests traveled mainly by water and there is no doubt that some of their canoes passed up the Detroit River. Carlisle, in his compila- tion of the records of the Wayne County Historical and Pioneer Society, says Jesuit missionaries visited an Ottawa village on Parent Creek, now within the city limits of Detroit, in 1610.
Wherever these priests went they established amicable relations with the native tribes, and though the spiritual welfare of the Indian was their first consideration, they opened the way for the fur traders. It was not until toward the middle of the century, however, that their labors began to bear fruit.
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Among the Jesuit missionaries who were active about this time was Father Claudius (or Claude) Dablon. He was a native of France and came to America in 1655, soon after taking his priestly orders. For three years he was stationed at the Onondaga mission, in the Iroquois country, after which he was among the Indians of New England for about ten years. In 1668 he was sent to the Great Lakes country and assisted in founding the mission of Sault Ste. Marie, the oldest white settlement within the present State of Michigan. For a number of years he was the superior of all the missions of the Northwest. While serving as superior he compiled the Jesuit Relations from 1672 to 1679, though they were not published until many years afterward.
One of the first great councils ever held with the Indians of the upper lakes was arranged by Father Claude Allouez at the Chippewa Village, on the southern shore of Lake Superior, in the fall of 1665. At this council half a dozen or more of the leading Indian nations of the Northwest and the Illinois country were represented by their chiefs. Allouez and his associates promised them the friendship and protection of the French and made inquiries regarding the country in which they lived. In the report of Allouez, concerning what was accomplished at the council, he says the Sioux and Illini chiefs told him of a great river "farther to the westward, called by them the Me-sa-sip-pi, which they said no white man had yet seen, and along which fur-bearing animals abounded."
Thirty years before the Allouez council, vague rumors of the great river had reached the Canadian authorities through the reports of Jean Nicollet, but little attention was paid to them. With the report of Allouez, and other in- formation he imparted, came a desire to know more of the river and the rich fur country described by the Indians. A delay of several years occurred, however, before any systematic effort was made to discover it.
MARQUETTE AND JOLIET
Jacques Marquette, one of the most active and intelligent of the Jesuit fathers, was born at Laon, France, in 1637. At an early age he joined the Jesuit Society and in 1666 was sent to Canada as a missionary. For about eighteen months after his arrival in America, he was stationed at the Three Rivers mission on the St. Lawrence. He was then transferred to the Lake Superior field and in 1668 he assisted Father Dablon in establishing the mission of Sault Ste Marie, "at the foot of the rapids." He remained in charge of this mission for about a year, when he was sent to the mission known as Pointe du Esprit. With the Huron portion of his flock, he left Pointe du Esprit in 1671 and founded the mission of Point St. Ignace.
In September, 1673, after his discovery of the Mississippi, he was ordered to the mission of St. Francis Xavier at the head of the Green Bay, where he remained until October, 1674. He was then sent to the Illinois country. Leav- ing St. Francis Xavier on October 25, 1674, he passed down the west shore of Lake Michigan until he reached the mouth of the Chicago River, thence up that stream to the portage, and down the Illinois River to Kaskaskia, reaching that settlement ou April 8, 1675. There he founded the mission of the Immacu- late Conception, when failing health caused him to set out on the return to St. Ignace. From the mouth of the Chicago River he crossed over to the east shore of Lake Michigan. Upon reaching the mouth of the Marquette River, where the City of Ludington, Michigan, is now located, he landed aud died there
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on May 18, 1675. His companions buried his body upon a little knoll and erected a cross to mark the spot, though his remains were afterward removed to St. Ignace.
Louis Joliet was born at Quebec on September 21, 1645, and was educated in the Jesuit College in his native city. He took minor orders, but in 1667 he gave up the idea of the priesthood to engage in the fur trade. After a visit to France, he was sent by M. Talon, the intendant at Quebec, to find the copper mines on the shore of Lake Superior. Early in 1669, accompanied by Jean Pere, he set out on his voyage and it is asserted by some writers that he was the first white man to pass through the Detroit River.
Joliet was at the Sault Ste Marie in June, 1671, when St. Lusson took possession of the region for France, and upon his return to Quebec he was assigned to accompany Father Marquette on an expedition "to find and aseer- tain the direction of the course of the Mississippi River and its mouth." Joliet died in Canada in May, 1700.
PERROT'S COUNCIL
The accounts of the region about Lake Michigan and Lake Superior carried back to Quebec by Allouez and other missionaries, led the Canadian authorities to send Nicolas Perrot as the accredited agent of the French Government to arrange for a grand council with the Indians and negotiate a treaty of peace. The council assembled at the mission of St. Marie late in May, 1671, and con- tinued in session for about two weeks. According to the Jesuit Relations for that year, the tribes represented were the Chippewa, Cree, Fox, Sac, Illini, Menominee, Pottawatomi and some of the Sioux. The account of the council says :
"Having caused a cross to be erected, to produce there the fruits of Christi- anity, and near it a cedar pole, to which we have attached the arms of France, saying three times with a loud voice and public proclamation, that IN THE NAME OF THE MOST HIGH, MOST POWERFUL AND MOST REDOUBTABLE MONARCH, LOUIS XIV OF NAME, MOST CHRISTIAN KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE, we take possession of said place, Sainte Marie du Sault, as also of the Lakes Huron and Superior," etc.
This proclamation was signed by Daumont de St. Lusson and a number of witnesses, and was dated June 14, 1671. (Some writers give the date as June 4, 1671.) By this act of De Lusson the territory bordering on Lake Huron became officially French domain.
DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI
Among those who were filled with the desire to discover the Mississippi River, after the council held at the Chippewa Village in the fall of 1665, was Father Marquette. He was deterred from making the attempt until after Perrot's council, which assured the friendship of the Indian tribes living along the upper portion of the river. In the spring of 1673, having received the necessary authority from the Canadian officials, he began his preparations at Michilimackinac for the voyage.
Early in May he was joined by Louis Joliet, who had been selected by M. Talon on account of his knowledge of topography to accompany Marquette and prepare a map of the river. It is said that the friendly Indians, who were loath to lose Father Marquette, tried to dissuade him from the undertaking
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by telling him the Indians living along the river were cruel and treacherous, and that the river itself was the abode of terrible monsters which could swallow both canoes and men. These stories had no effect upon the intrepid priest, un- less to make him more determined, and on May 13, 1673, he and Joliet, accom- panied by five voyageurs, with two large canoes, left Michilimackinac.
Passing up the Green Bay to the mouth of the Fox River, the little expedi- tion ascended that stream to the portage, crossed over to the Wisconsin River, down which they floated until June 17, 1673, when their canoes drifted out upon the broad bosom of the Mississippi. Turning their course down stream they descended the great "Father of Waters," carefully noting the landmarks as they passed along. When they reached the mouth of the Arkansas River, they found an Indian tribe whose language they could not understand and decided to go no farther, deferring the discovery of the mouth of the river for a future voyage.
Instead of returning by way of the Wisconsin River, they ascended the Illinois to the portage, about where the City of Joliet now stands, crossed over to the Chicago River and in due time reached Lake Michigan, over whose waters they passed to Michilimackinac. There Father Marquette ended his journey, but Joliet went on to Quebec to report the results of their voyage. In the Lachine Rapids, above Montreal, his cance was capsized and his notes and charts were lost. Joliet barely escaped with his life and upon reaching Quebec he prepared a narrative from memory, which agreed in all the essential particulars with Marquette's account of the voyage.
The discovery of the Mississippi by Marquette and Joliet wrought important changes in the affairs of the Canadian settlements. Transportation in those days was chiefly by water, and, although the exact location of the mouth of the Mississippi was still undetermined, it was certain that the river emptied into the Gulf of Mexico. Enough was learned through the voyage of Marquette and Joliet to make sure that by easy portages, by way of either the Illinois or Wisconsin River, a thoroughfare could be opened between the French settle- ments about the Great Lakes and those soon to be established in Louisiana. The reports of Marquette and Joliet convinced the Canadian authorities that the great river was not a myth, and it was not long until steps were taken to claim the country drained by it for France.
LA SALLE'S EXPEDITIONS
In the year following the voyage of Marquette and Joliet, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, was granted the seigneury of Fort Frontenac, where the City of Kingston, Ontario, is now situated, and on May 12, 1678, he received from Louis XIV, King of France, a commission to continue the explorations of Marquette and Joliet, "find a port for the king's ships in the Gulf of Mexico, discover the western parts of New France, and find a way to penetrate Mexico."
In the fall of 1678 La Salle sent a party of fifteen men up the lakes to trade with the Indians and soon afterward commenced preparations for his first attempt to reach and descend the Mississippi. At a place called Black Rock, near Niagara, he began the construction of a vessel of sixty tons, which was launched in May, 1679, and named the "Griffon." This was the first sailing vessel on the Great Lakes. After a few short trial trips, she started on her first real voyage early in August, 1679. She was equipped with five small
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eannon and carried La Salle, Louis Hennepin, a Franeisean priest of the Reeollet order, and thirty men.
About three weeks before the start of the "Griffon," La Salle despatched his lieutenant, Henri de Tonty, with five men, to find the party sent out the preeeding autumn and bring the men to the lake at some convenient point for embarkation. The little vessel made good time and on August 10, 1679, found Tonty and the others waiting on the Detroit River, at or near the site of the City of Detroit. Taking them on board the "Griffon," La Salle continued his voyage and reached Washington Island, at the entrance of the Green Bay, in the early part of September.
IIennepin's deseription of the Detroit was one of the first to be published. He says: "The islands are the finest in the world. The strait is finer than Niagara, being one leagne broad exeepting that part which forms the lake we have called Lake Ste. Claire. * * * A large village of Huron Indians ealled Teuehsa Grondie occupied the bank of the river. The village had been visited by the Jesuit missionaries and coureurs de bois, but no settlement had been attempted."
On September 18, 1679, the "Griffon" left Washington Island on her return voyage, but two days later encountered a severe storm in the northern part of Lake Michigan and was lost. Pieces of the wreek afterward drifted ashore on some of the islands at the north end of the lake and were identified.
La Salle reached the Illinois River, "in the dead of winter," when he learned of the loss of the "Griffon" and abandoned the expedition. Near the present City of La Salle, Illinois, he built a small stoekade, which he ealled Fort Crevecoeur (Broken Heart), where he left part of his men and with the others started for Canada. Passing around the head of Lake Michigan, he arrived at the site of St. Joseph, where he struck a due easterly course, crossed the Detroit River on a raft and arrived at Niagara abont May 1, 1680.
In the meantime, Father Hennepin. who had been left at Fort Crevecoeur, undertook a little exploring expedition of his own. With a few men he left . the fort in February, 1680, and went down the Illinois to the Mississippi. Instead of descending the latter stream, he turned his canoes in the opposite direction. On April 11, 1680, he and his party were captured by Sioux Indians near the mouth of the Wisconsin River. The eaptives were taken up the Mississippi to St. Anthony's Falls-so named by Hennepin in honor of his patron saint-where they were resened by Sienr du Luth and in November they were back in Quebec.
After the failure of his first expedition, affairs at his seigneury claimed La Salle's attention for nearly three years, though he did not relinquish the idea of finding and exploring the great river. In December, 1681, he started upon his second, and what proved to be his successful expedition. This time he was accompanied by Henri de Tonty ; Jacques de la Metarie, a notary ; Jean Michel, surgeon of the expedition; Father Zenobe Membre, a Recollet mission- ary ; and a "number of Frenchmen bearing arms." It is not necessary to follow this little band of explorers through all its vicissitudes and hardships in travers- ing a wild, unexplored country in the worst season of the year. Suffice it to say that the river was reached and deseended to its mouth. On April 8, 1682. La Salle and Tonty passed through two of the channels connecting with the Gulf of Mexico. The next day came together again and La Salle took formal possession of "all the country drained by the great river and its tributaries,
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in the name of France, and conferred upon the territory thus claimed the name of Louisiana, in honor of the French king."
To the casual reader it may seem that La Salle's work as an explorer has little or nothing to do with the history of Detroit. But it should be borne in mind that the discovery of the Mississippi by Marquette and Joliet opened the way for the later voyage of La Salle and his claim to all the country drained by the river, which strengthened the French claim to the region about the Great Lakes and made easier the establishment of forts and trading posts, one of which was planted at Detroit by Cadillac nineteen years later.
DOLLIER AND GALINEE
Last to be mentioned, but by no means to be reckoned the least important of the early white visitors to the vicinity of Detroit, were the two Sulpitian priests, Francois Dollier de Casson and Abbe Brehant de Galinee. The former, commonly called Dollier, was born about 1620 and before entering the priest- hood he had won distinction as a cavalry officer under Turenne. Parkman describes him as "a man of great courage, of a tall, commanding person and of uncommon bodily strength."
With three of his brethren he came to Canada in September, 1666, and soon after his arrival joined Colonel Tracy in a campaign against the Mohawk Indians. Then, for a time, he was chaplain at Fort Ste. Anne, at the outlet of Lake Champlain. He passed the winter of 1668-69 in the hunting camp of Nitarikijk, a chief of the Nipissing Indians. While in the Nipissing camp he met an Indian prisoner from the Lake Superior country, who told him of the populous tribes living in that region, and he determined to pay them a visit. In the early summer of 1669 he went to Montreal to procure an outfit for his journey.
At Montreal he met Galinee and enlisted his cooperation. Galinee had come to America the year before with Queylus, the superior of the Sulpitian Seminary at Montreal. After hearing Dollier's story, the superior gave a ready assent to the undertaking and assisted the two missionaries in their preparations. Governor Courcelles persuaded them to join La Salle, who was then just about ready to start on an expedition to the upper lakes.
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